Brideshead Revisited

I must admit to being somewhat confused after seeing Brideshead Revisited. I knew it was based on a best-selling novel, which has previously been made into a celebrated TV series, but it left me wondering why something as baffling as this could be called ‘a riveting drama of forbidden love, power and betrayal’.

What starts out as the story of a rich student’s lower-class plaything, moves into the field of tragic love triangle destroyed by family and religious politics stumbles further onto infidelity and inability to find release from the steely grips of a deceased matriarchal mother.

Now I must admit, it is a sumptuously filmed period drama, that has some notable performances, though the inclusion of Emma Thompson as the aforementioned matriarch is jarring at the least. The best roles go to the two black sheep of the main family, the father and younger son.

It may be that I missed something in the story, or that the condensation into a two hour movie totally destroyed all comprehension of the original, but in this version at least, Brideshead Revisited is nothing more than a very badly written, bumbling story of dissatisfaction.